Spider-Man #52

Part 2 of "The Exile Returns" arrives with one of 1994's most viscerally striking covers, as Venom — fanged maw wide open, tongue lashing — seizes a red-and-black symbiote figure (the cover copy confirms it's a clone facing Spider-Man's most lethal foe) in a grip that radiates pure menace. Tom Lyle both penciled and inked this confrontation, delivering two snarling symbiote faces filling nearly the entire frame against a bold yellow burst, with a smaller symbiote figure lurking ominously in the upper corner. Writer Howard Mackie and artist Tom Lyle's "Deadline" chapter promises the kind of high-stakes clash that the cover's blunt tagline — "Venom is back — and he sure ain't a good guy!" — sells with refreshing, gleeful honesty.